season, with all which things the earth and its interior strata are materially connected.

Another principle must have also influenced the deposition, contents, and position of the surface rocks in the state we now find them, which our scientific men are only as yet beginning to attend to; and this is, the presence or production, distribution and movement of the electric, caloric, and magnetic fluids. It is probable that on these, and upon the effect of the present composition of the earth with respect to them, the system of our weather, our winds, and storms, lightnings, vegetation, animal motivity, and all the meteoric phenomena, in no small degree depend. None of these could be what they are, or act as they do, if the rocky masses that we move upon had not been what they are, if there be any connexion between the one and the other.*

The last formation of the surface must have also been

The new facts that have been recently observed concerning the electrical relations of the earths and metals, imply that they are not useless or inefficient in their subterraneous positions. Mr. Fox has observed that the metalliferous veins have a real electricity; this, from its very nature, cannot be an inactive property. Mr. Henwood has repeated Mr. Fox's experiments in 40 or 50 places, and considers his results to confirm them. Mr. Fox is disposed to refer some of the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism to electric currents existing in these veins. Mr. Faraday has discovered that electrical currents are not only excited during the motion of metals, but that such currents are transmitted by them. Mr. Christie found that a peculiar polarity is imparted to iron by the simple act of rotation, and Mr. Arajo, that analogous effects take place during the rotation of all metals.

Electrical currents are excited in the earth, in consequence of the rotation with which the phenomena of magnetism are thought to be connected. See Mr. Christie's Report Brit. Assoc. 1811, p. 117-8.

Dr. Prout remarks, "We must suppose currents of electricity to circulate within the earth, and more especially near its surface, and to be continually passing from east to west in planes parallel to the magnetic equator. These would explain the magnetic directive property of the earth."-Dr. Prout's Bridg. Treat. p. 232. Mr. Faraday has found that numerous substances are non-conductors of electricity in a solid state, but become good conductors when fluid or when frozen; and it has been stated that he has discovered that the ethereal fluid enters as a truly constituent part of all bodies.

These ideas show that the nature, position, and local distributions of the rocks and superincumbency of their strata, should be studied now with regard to their electrical relations and effects, as their formations and arrangements must have been adjusted to these.

Until these are ascertained, we shall not be able to discover the true philosophy of the geological structure of the earth. But these considera. tions also give us additional reasons to infer, that scientific plans and foreseeing and adapting care have been essentially required in ita

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All these

regulated and governed, for the seas to be in the stations they occupy, and to be lastingly confined within the boundaA proportioned expanse of ries in which we find them. cavity was necessary for this effect, and an adapted depression of the land towards them, with a due elevation of the interior soil into such higher ground as would admit the rivers to roll down their superfluous streams. effects, and numerous others which need not here be detailed, required a peculiar arrangement of the last surface rocks, and of their metals and minerals, or the uses and benefits which have resulted from them would not have occurred. Specific plans, supernatural agency, and a directing execution, appear in every part. Nothing could have been left to chance, or mere natural sequences, on such We shall not err, if we believe that our subjects as these. habitable ground and its under strata were formed as delibThe structure will erately and scientifically, as a palace or cathedral has been constructed by human art and care. never be intelligible to us without this supposition.

It is not necessary to suppose that when Noah left the ark the whole earth was divested of the waters. No larger As manportion would be at first required for the use of living beings, than the space which their subsistence needed. kind and animals increased, more regions of dry land would be wanted; but it would be quite sufficient for their convenience if the waters withdrew in proportion as they spread. I mention this, because the rocks, in many parts, seem to indicate, that several great districts were under water much longer than others. The limestone masses are unequally distributed, and occur peculiar lines and portions. They are as much wanting in some regions, as they are vast and continuous in others. Hence the process of forming the surface may have been in gradual operation in many countries, for several centuries after the deluge, before human population had extended itself to them.

in

Asia first nourished the renewed race; and while man spread within it, the European continent may have been under the dominion of the waters. It is thought that Europe, for some time, consisted of a series of immense lakes, or internal seas, between the acclivities or the roots of its construction, so that every part might be compared and placed according to the laws and designed effects and changes of this potent fluid.

great mountains. This may have been so. It was an ancient opinion that Thessaly was a lake. It is now thought, that the country through which the Rhine flows was likewise such. The basin in which the Lake of Constance still remains, was one of these. Another has been traced in Baden, from Upper Alsace to Mentz. A series of the same sort has been found to accompany the course of the Danube. Bavaria was a vast lake: the Austrian dominions, from Passau; and another up to Presburg. Hungary is a great circular basin of an anterior sea. The Bannat is another, but smaller. The plains of Moldavia and Wallachia, up to the Black Sea, present a similar valley, that was once covered with water. The Black Sea, the Sea of Marmora, and the Mediterranean, are but a continuation of these; but being the lowest of all these regions, and on a level with the general ocean, the waters here remain as seas, because they cannot find a lower place.*

The gradual dissemination of mankind and of animals must have been always governed by the state of each locality.

One consequence of this inundated state of many parts of the earth would be, that marine plants would overspread its surface below the waters, and that its first inhabitants, where they prevailed, would be marine animals. Shellfish

* Aristotle notices the changes of countries by the gradual disappearance of their waters from them. "This happened to Hellas, and about the regions of Argos and Mycena; for in the Trojan times, the regions about Argos being in a watery state could maintain but few; whereas Mycenae was better off in this respect, and therefore had the higher honour; but now, its land has altogether dried up and become sterile. What was then barren from its laky state, has now become productive.

"What has happened in this district, which is small, has also occurred in extensive places and in whole regions; for many parts which were formerly under water have now become continents, and the contrary. In many places the sea has come upon the land."-Arist. Meteor. 368. He remarks this change in Egypt. "The watery places drying by degrees, the neighbouring districts became inhabited. We say that the Egyptians are the most ancient of men, but all their region appears to have been made, and to be the waste of the river."-Ib.

"The places near the Red Sea sufficiently show this. One of their kings tried to break through the Isthmus here. Sesostris is said to have been the first of the ancients who tried this, but he found the sea higher than the land. Hence it is manifest that all these things were one continued sea. Wherefore it appears that the part about Libya, the Ammo mian region, is lower and more hollow."-Ib.

would multiply on the banks and ground beneath. Fish would float, live, and die in the moving streams above; while every summer, as the mountain ices melted, and the spring rains descended, the rivers would bring currents of disintegrated hills, and of muddy soil, to deposite on the beds over which they should flow; and thus, every year, or at frequent intervals, forming new layers of strata from the materials they would carry with them. These facts will account for rocky masses and strata with no fossil remains, but those of marine animals and plants. As long as the waters anywhere covered the surface, these only could live and multiply in them; and, therefore, all the earliest relics of organized life must have been, and are found now to be, of this description. It was not until the ground became divested of the superincumbent fluid, that quadrupeds could occupy, or that land-vegetation could be diffused. These would be the next occupants, and the only ones, until human colonizations penetrated into the regions. But it is everywhere found, that the animal classes diffuse themselves more rapidly than the human race, whom plants and forests always precede.

The next series of remains, after the marine, will therefore be of quadrupeds and dry-ground plants and trees. Bones of mankind will be rare; and rarer from the habit of many tribes of burning their dead. Even where this custom did not prevail, the social habit of congregating in towns, and of being buried in some general cemetery, would prevent any human fossils from appearing in the rocks and strata of the earth, or anywhere but in close vicinity to these frequented cities.

But we must not mistake the local appearances of only the simple marine plants and animals, as evidences that no other then existed on the earth; or when the fossil remains of quadrupeds solely are found, infer that man had not then been created. His absence proves that his population had not spread into those parts where he has left no relics of his presence; but it proves no more-non-diffusion is not

non-existence.*

*On the main principle of this letter, I quote with much pleasure a fine passage of the Rev. A. Sedgwick's concluding address to the British Association of Cambridge in 1833:-"There is in the intellect of man an appetence for the discovery of general truth; and by this appetence, VOL. II.-Ff

LETTER XXIII.

The Natural Scenery of the Earth made to be everywhere Beautiful and Interesting Instances of its Effect on various Minds in the different Regions of the World.

MY DEAR SON,

OUR considerations on the surface which was established at the deluge, for the subsistence and habitation of mankind and of the rest of animated nature, have been directed to the effects and utilities which have been derived from it, in producing and maintaining the present course of nature, the social economy of mankind, and their general convenience and comfort. But as we contemplate the aspect of all that surrounds us, we can read most legibly in the expanded volume of nature before us, that another principle of the divine Mind has been in liberal activity for our benefit; and this is that affectionate regard for his human race, which the Scriptures term the love of God for man, which goes far beyond what we term reasoning or philosophic philanthropy, or that moral principle which contents itself with seeking the welfare of its human objects. He has not been satisfied with doing us good, and providing largely for our necessities and wellbeing; his feeling towards us has been more kind and endearing. He has been solicitous to give us pleasure in his various creations, as well as food, comfort, and safety. He has, therefore, enlarged his plan and contrivances, to add multiplied and diversified means of easy and continual enjoyment, beyond our bodily gratifications; purely to ex

in subordination to the capacities of his mind, has he been led on to the discovery of general laws; and thus, his soul has been fitted to reflect back upon the world a portion of the counsels of his Creator. If I have said that physical phenomena, unless connected with the ideas of order and of law, are of little worth, I may farther say, that an intellectual grasp of material laws of the highest order has no moral worth, except it be combined with another movement of the mind, raising it to the perception of an intelligent FIRST CAUSE. It is by help of this last movement that nature's language is comprehended; that her laws become pregnant with meaning; that material phenomena are instinct with life; that all moral and material changes become linked together; and that truth, under whatever forms she may present herself, seems to have but oné essential substance."-Report Brit. Assoc. 1833, p. xxx.